Developing new approaches to global stock status assessment and fishery production potential of the seas

FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Circular. No. 1086

Andrew A. Rosenberg
UCS, United States of America

Michael J. Fogarty
NFSC, NMFS, NOAA, United States of America

Andrew B. Cooper
SFU, Canada

Mark Dickey-Collas
ICES, Denmark

Elizabeth A. Fulton
CSIRO, Australia

Nicolás L. Gutiérrez
MSC, United Kingdom

Kimberly J.W. Hyde
NMFS, NOAA, United States of America

Kristin M. Kleisner
Sea Around Us Project, UBC, Canada

Trond Kristiansen
IMR, Norway

Catherine Longo
NCEAS, United States of America

Carolina V. Minte-Vera
UEMa Brazil, and IATTC, United States of America

Cóilín Minto
GMIT, Ireland

Iago Mosqueira
EC JRC, IPSC, MAU, Italy

Giacomo Chato-Osio
EC JRC, IPSC, MAU, Italy

Daniel Ovando
SFG, UC, United States of America

Elizabeth R. Selig
Gordon and Betty Moore Center for Science and Oceans, CI, United States of America

James T. Thorson
FRMD, NFSCm NMFS, NOAA, United States of America

Yimin Ye
FAO, Italy

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Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Rome 2014

ABSTRACT

Rosenberg, A.A., Fogarty, M.J., Cooper, A.B., Dickey-Collas, M., Fulton, E.A., Gutiérrez, N.L., Hyde, K.J.W., Kleisner, K.M., Kristiansen, T., Longo, C., Minte- Vera, C., Minto, C., Mosqueira, I., Chato Osio, G., Ovando, D., Selig, E.R., Thorson, J.T. & Ye, Y. 2014.
Developing new approaches to global stock status assessment and fishery production potential of the seas. FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Circular No. 1086. Rome, FAO. 175 pp.

FAO has been monitoring the state of the world's marine fish stocks since 1974, and it periodically produces the most authoritative report on the subject – The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture. Information on the state of fishery sustainability is not only important for policy formulation, but also crucial to guide the fishing industry and its managers to develop effective harvest strategies. Moreover, sustainable fisheries require healthy ecosystems. To monitor ecosystem health, it is necessary to conduct ecosystem-level assessments that take into consideration both targeted and non-targeted species, interspecies interactions, and other factors that cannot be determined by looking at each stock in isolation. With these objectives, the Fisheries and Aquaculture Department of the FAO commissioned a study – Developing New Approaches to Global Stock Status Assessment and Fishery Production Potential of the Seas. This circular presents the results of the study. It consists of two parts. Part 1 focuses on determining single-stock status and summarizes the results of simulation testing of four methods that can be applied to data-poor fisheries. Part 2 reports the results on the estimation of ecosystem-level production potentials based on satellite-based estimates of primary productivity.

Table of Contents

Preparation of this document
Abstract
Acknowledgements
Abbreviations and acronyms
PART I Determining Single Stock Status
1.		Introduction
2.		Methods: Evaluation of the performance of different models for estimating the status of unassessed fisheries
		2.1	Description of candidate models
		2.2	Simulation framework and implementation
		2.3	Evaluation of method performance
3.		Results
		3.1	Overall performance
		3.2	Best performance
		3.3	Performance across models
		3.4	Determinants of performance for each of the four assessment methods
4.		Discussion
PART II: Fishery Production Potential
5.		Introduction
		5.1	Methods and Data Sources
		5.2	Estimating primary productio
		5.3	Transfer Efficiencies
		5.4	Benthic-Mesozooplankton Pathway
		5.5	Landings data
		5.6	Assignment of landings data to taxonomic groups
		5.7	Discard data
		5.8	Mean trophic level and species dominance of landings
		5.9	Catch-production ratios
		5.10	Treating Uncertainty
		5.11	Ecosystem-based exploitation reference levels
6.	Results
		6.1	Primary production
		6.2	Transfer efficiencies
		6.3	Production potential
		6.4	Landings and catch
		6.5	Mean trophic level and dominance of landings
		6.6	Yield efficiency index
		6.7	Fishery production potential
		6.8	Ratio of catch to available production
7.	Discussion
8.	References
Appendix 1
Appendix 2

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